Lang Lang plays his very 'first loves'

If a thousand-mile journey begins with a single step, a career in music can begin with a single tune.

Internationally acclaimed pianist Lang Lang is out with a new solo album called "Piano Book" — a collection of the pieces that first inspired him to learn to play the piano and led him on a path to superstardom.

"With Piano Book, I'm going back to my first loves, to the pieces that made me want to become a musician in the first place," said Lang at a press conference at Steinway & Sons headquarters in New York on Tuesday.

Piano Book gathers many of the miniature masterpieces that generations of amateur pianists have grown up with.

As well as works by the great composers, such as Beethoven's Für Elise, Debussy's Clair de lune and J.S. Bach's Prelude in C Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, Lang has also included some of his favorite modern works from TV and movies like Yann Tiersen's Valse d'Amélie, Max Richter's The Departure and Ryuichi Sakamoto's music for Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence.

Lang said he holds the newer works in the highest regard, believing them to be classics in their own right. He hopes to encourage piano students across the world to fully embrace them.

"I want to take every music lover on a journey through my favorite piano pieces," said Lang. "I hope to inspire as well as motivate every piano student to stay focused during daily practice, and to play and understand these essential pieces for what they really are — true masterpieces."

Some pieces that hold particular resonance in specific cultures have also been chosen, such as Sweden's Limu, limu, lima and the popular Chinese work Jasmine Flower.

"The folk songs from around the world that I encountered on my travels are another reason why this album is of such personal importance," he said.

"Folk tunes are essential for everyone's cultural identity. Listening to them, I started to hear classical music with new ears, realizing how profoundly folk songs and dances had influenced so many classical composers. I got to know wonderful music through my trips to many different countries and wanted to present some of this music on my album," he added.

Recorded at London's Abbey Road studios and in Beijing, his first studio album in three years marks his return to Universal Music Group and Deutsche Grammophon — the label that first signed him in 2003.

Graham Parker, president of Universal Music Classics, said that after the album was released at the end of March, it shot to the top of the classical charts, becoming No 1 in the UK, France, Germany, Japan and China. In the US, it topped the classical charts on Amazon and iTunes — breaking Lang's own sales record for an album's first week.

Parker said education and bringing music to all people is an important mission for Lang, and one that Universal supports, which makes this album such a good fit.

Lang said the Piano Book reflects what he'd like to pass on to a new generation.

At the press conference, Lang also discussed his work with his Lang Lang International Music Foundation. The foundation was set up over 10 years ago and has so far inspired 40 million children to learn the piano and developed successful education programs including Keys of Inspiration, 101 Pianists, Young Scholars and Play It Forward. Lang has also developed a workbook series called The Lang Lang Piano Method.

Lang said he was equally happy playing for billions of viewers at the Olympics or just for a few hundred children at a public school since he believes "music heals, unites and inspires, and it makes us better people".

The album is released in multiple formats, including a limited score edition with copies of all the sheet music, including Für Elise, as annotated by Lang himself.